SEPTEMBER 2012 LLOCOOCO LLINESINES

DIVISIONAL EXECUTIVE

DIVISIONAL SECRETARY: Marc Marotta 0414 897 314

DIVISIONAL PRESIDENT: Terry Sheedy 0417 310 400

DIVISIONAL ASSIST. SECRETARY: Jim Chrysostomou 0404 814 141

DIVISIONAL VICE PRESIDENT: John Marotta 0404 814 273

DIVISIONAL DELEGATES

Metropolitan Sub-division: Kevin Duggan 0404 811 589 Paris Jolly 0422 790 624 Pacific National Sub-division: Peter Laux 0417 526 544 Pacific National (ex Freight) Sub-division: James Styles 0427 018 963 Passenger Sub-division: Wayne Hicks 0407 035 282

C CLASSC CLASS Length: 20.73 m (68 ft 0 in) Length: 20.73 m (68 ft 0 in) -- One Directional LocomotiveOne Directional Locomotive On Friday 7th September 2012 a nonOn Friday 7th September 2012 a non--union member decided it was union member decided it was OK to run for 97 Kilometres the wrong end first at track speed. OK to run for 97 Kilometres the wrong end first at track speed. This was put a stop to. Irresponsible acts of this sort would do This was put a stop to. Irresponsible acts of this sort would do irreparable damage to their employers reputation in the industry. irreparable damage to their employers reputation in the industry.

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RT&BU-LD Address: Level 14, 222 Kings Way, South Melbourne Victoria 3205

Tel: 9682 1122 Fax: 9682 8344 Toll Free: 1800 134 095 E-mail: rtbu@iprimus.com.au

RTBU LOCOMOTIVE DIVISION WEBSITE

www.rtbuvicloco.com.au

LLOCOOCO LLINESINES EDITION 55 SEP 2012

Loco Lines is published by the Locomotive Division of the Australian Rail, Tram & Bus Industry Union Victorian Branch. See the bottom of this page for the Locomotive Divisions business address, telephone, e-mail and website details. Loco Lines is distributed free to all f inancial members of the Locomotive Division. Retired Enginemen also receive the magazine for free. It is made available to non-members at a cost of $20.00 per year. Advertisements offering a specif ic benefit to Locomotive Division members are published free of charge. Heritage groups are generally not charged for advertising or tour information. Views or opinions expressed in published contributions to Loco Lines are not necessarily those of the Union Office. We also reserve the right to alter or delete text for legal or other purposes. Contributions are printed at the discretion of the publisher. Loco Lines, or any part thereof, cannot be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of the Victorian Locomotive Division.

Publisher Marc Marotta

CContenontenttss Marc MarottaLoco Div Secretary 3

Terry SheedyBranch / Div President 6

Jim Chrysostomou-Div Ass Secretary 7

John Marotta Divisional V/P &

Wayne HicksV/Line Pass 8

V/ Line Pass OHS Report 11

Nelsons Column 12

Letters 18

Cab Committee 21

Signal Sighting Committee 22

Scholarships 25

Talkback from Hinch 26

Off the Rails 27

Where Is It ? 28

Word find 33

Membership application 36

SEPTEMBER 2012 LLOCOOCO LLINESINES 3

Marc

Marotta

Locomotive

Divisional

Secretary

Vline Enterprise negotiation time is probably the busiest period for union office officials. At the time of writing, V/Line negotiations have stalled because of two obstacles. The first is the quantum of the pay rise, whilst the Locomotive Division accepts that in the value for an across the board pay rise there may be some overflow to other areas of the union from Locomotive Division workplace efficiencies and changes in work practices. How much over flow is the question. This issue had been raised by a number of drivers at union meetings. Members of the Locomotive Division that hold the view that no overflow should be accepted need to come to terms with (as I have had to) the fact that this may be part of the territory of an amalgamated Union. This issue of amalgamation was dealt with about 3 years ago under the previous office bearers and the members voted for amalgamation, that should end any further complaints about the situation. But in my view that does not mean the magnitude of the overflow of value from any division of the union to other parts of the union cant be an issue. In the V/Line case it still remains a matter to be resolved. The second issue is the weekend penalty payment for Locomotive Drivers. Since 1995 the introduction of the aggregate wage in which the then low level of weekend work was calculated and was part of the aggregate wage. Locomotive Drivers have seen a steady increase in the frequency of weekend work, which has now reached a maximum level of every second weekend rostered to work. This matter must be resolved for Locomotive Division if there is to be a new Enterprise Agreement. The current position for the Locomotive Division is if these matters are not resolved, there will be no new agreement and the current agreement should be rolled over with no change to our conditions and work practice. If V/Line wishes to propose new work practice changes at a later date with the Locomotive Division, there is provision in the Fair Work Act to vary an Industrial Agreement, and this will re-quire the members to vote on any proposed variation and the value. Metro The Metro Agreement has been sent to Fair Work Australia for certification. Against all expectations, including my own, we have been able to re-negotiate the fundamentals for a driver to have some quality of life both on and off the job. The determinate for any drivers working life is rostering; thanks to efforts of Jim Chrysostomou, Paris Jolly and Terry Sheedy. A roster code has been re-established at the metro electric running depots, which defines what can be done and what cant

by management and drivers. The second item to re-establish was a drivers training course. The first two parts of the new train drivers course is now 73 weeks with an emphasis on certain aspects of driving duties. Provided the first two parts of the course go according to plan, a new driver will be fully qualified including all route knowledge for metro systems at the earliest after 99 weeks training. The one thing that we failed to re-capture was the fault management protocol. This F.M.P. Agreement and I have some history. It was the first matter that I took to the old Industrial Relations Commission in 1996, which the electric running depot receiving a 6% increase in wages. Unfortunately, the current union officials were put in a position of having to retake lost ground, and the turmoil and acrimony with Metro over these items has been the real reason for the attacks on Terry Sheedy, Jim Chrysostomou, Paris Jolly and I over the last 18 months. If Metro had been successful in neutralising the current office bearers, Metro could have used their often repeated mantra that only business needs would dictate the standard of your work conditions, such as hours of work and what training standards that would apply in the work place, rather than a balance between employees rights and business imperatives. This situation was brought about by previous office bearers inexplicable failure to incorporate the existing standards for rostering, driver training, fault management in the 2009 Enterprise Agreement that were included in the previous agreements prior to them taking office. Privatisation Country Link will be the first Rail Enterprise in N.S.W. to be privatised. The corporatization of Country Link was completed some time ago. Rumours abound about when this is to happen and vary from it should of already happened, with a policy of privatisation for all its Public Transport in N.S.W. of which Country Link is the most advanced for the process of privatisation. Whilst we had two state governments of different political colour, the likely hood of the Victorian government ceding ownership of Rolling Stock was remote. Now we have two right wing state governments in power with shared views about privatisation its much simpler for them to come to an agreement. Locomotive Division has become aware of inter-governmental discussions to assist the N.S.W Government in its agenda of privatisation, at this stage this is unconfirmed. A meeting was held with the National Secretary Mr. Bob Nanva, T. Dobbyn and myself at which this matter was discussed and the National Secretary was going to try and get some additional information. If this proves to be correct there will be little likelihood of retaining Victorian Locomotive Drivers on the X.P.T. service. When I reflect on this scenario, it seems unlikely, once Country Link is fully privatised, that a private company will receive a subsidy from a N.S.W liberal government for a passenger service into Victoria for the price of one set of 30 year old Rolling Stock of the X.P.T. But speculation what maybe is probably unproductive at this stage. In discussions with V/Line management about this matter, they have been candid. They would by happy to remove the V/Line drivers from the X.P.T. This is the situation as it stands at the moment and we will keep you informed of developments.

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SEPTEMBER 2012